Press

"If we really wanted to go after it, we'd have undercover sting operations aimed at our elite athletes," one researcher noted. "And that ain't going to happen." Still, the anti doping community was cheered by what it regards as the biggest breakthrough since Canada's Ben Johnson was stripped of his 100 meter gold medal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. "The noose is tightening," says Dick Pound, the Canadian attorney who heads the World Anti Doping Agency. "We're getting to the point where you can run, but you can't hide." Steven Ungerleider, author of "Faust's Gold: Inside the East German Doping Machine," hopes that by warning athletes about these newer, more sophisticated tests, this scandal will produce "a sea change" or, at the very least, a start at cleaning up athletics. True sports fans can only hope it's not a false start.